Earthquakes don’t kill people…

unreinforced masonry buildings do. No earthquake ever hit anyone in the head or buried a child; forget about the earth opening up and swallowing people. It’s heavy stuff falling on you that kills, period. Piles of brick and stone with rooms in them in seismic zones are scheduled for demolition, either at a time chosen by nature, occupied, and by surprise, or intentionally and safely by us. Of course retrofitting with relatively cheap steel framing can cancel this appointment, for buildings worth saving.